Chapter 1 - Danny: Long Time
I blinked. I had to be seeing things. No way was this the same boy who used to give me piggyback rides to class and eat cookie dough ice cream with him. There was no way this was Gavin Hendricks.
His green eyes, which reminded me of pine trees, stared right at me. I watched an array of different emotions flash across his face—Shock, intrigue, and finally contentment. His eyes were warm and friendly.
He looked older. I mean, obviously, he was older, but there was an air of maturity surrounding him. Gone was the babyface I had known. Now, in its place, was a neat and well-cut beard. His chiseled jaw was angled and perfect. He was the embodiment of sex on legs. Even from here, those striking green eyes managed to seize my breath and he wasn’t even looking at me. His black hair was styled into that ‘I just woke up and I look like sex on legs’. I had to mentally slap myself. Was I really drooling over a jawline?
And those eyes…
The last time I had seen them, those green eyes had looked at me very differently. It had been almost ten years since I was in the same city, let alone the same vicinity, as Gavin.
There were so many emotions raging through my body at that moment. The biggest and loudest one had to be sadness.
The last time Gavin and I spoke, we had made promises to see each other the following day, but that never happened. It took me a long time to get over what he had said, and it took even longer to conclude that he and I were no longer best friends.
We had grown up together and then suddenly we became strangers overnight. I never looked for him after he left Riverroad, and he never looked for me. It was like we ceased existing for one another. I had tried to get into contact with him after some weeks had passed but that had proven to be a big mistake.
“Gavin,” Maddie got up from her chair with great struggle. “I hope you didn’t get lost on your way up.”
That pregnant belly of hers was getting bigger by the day. She was bigger than I was when I was pregnant with Axel and that boy was a giant. My poor vagina was still recovering three years later. It wasn’t like she had been getting any action anyway. That factory had closed a long time ago.
“No, I didn’t. The ranch is beautiful, even better than the pictures. I remember seeing it once when I was a kid but that was years ago.”
Maddie rubbed her swollen belly. “Yeah. I’m still getting used to it, but Danny knows all the ins and outs of the place. She is the ranch manager. She’s the one that will keep you on top of things.”
Gavin’s green eyes turned to me once more, and I nearly lost my cool. This man was tempting like sin. The years had been kind to him. He had a full, clean-cut beard on his chin, and his body was bigger and fuller, muscular and more masculine. He was a man. The last I had seen him he had been a boy transitioning into a man.
Something in my core stirred and I had to chastise my inner self for being so crude. This was Gavin we were talking about, not some random on the street.
“I will leave you two to chat for a little bit. This baby is in need of some more noodles,” Maddie waddled into the house, leaving me alone with Gavin. Marcus had wandered off with Axel, and I was left to fend for myself.
“So…” He walked up the porch steps and leaned on the railing. “How have you been, Dan?”
Dan. I hadn’t heard that name in a long time. It had been his special name for me. After everything that had happened between us, it never felt right for anyone else to call me that.
I nervously twirled a piece of my brown hair, trying to gain control of my senses. I was short-circuiting.
“I’ve…I’ve been good.”
Great. I’m stuttering like a damn fool.
“How have you been?” I rushed out, trying to not make a complete fool out of myself.
“I have been alright. I just needed some time to come back home and take a breather from the city for a while. LA tends to get a little overwhelming when you stay there for long.”
He had turned into a city boy. He had always hated Riverroad. He always felt like he was destined for more and he was. Even though I hadn’t kept in contact with him I had heard through the grapevine that he had done pretty well for himself.
I had been devastated when he had left. If I was being honest, it felt like a breakup. I had lost my best friend and the person I had thought would be there for life. Even worse, he had ghosted me for the better part of six months. It was only when I made my way to LA for spring break did I bump into him by accident.
The encounter was awkward, to say the least. It was clear that the time apart had changed our dynamic. I’d hardly recognized the guy that had stood before me. A lot of words were passed between us and, after that, we never spoke again. I would still hear about him from time to time. The last I had heard, he was doing some training for this big NFL team in LA.
He had made his choices, and I had made mine. None of them involved each other. I had learned to be okay with that after a while.
“So I guess you are going to be my boss.” He rubbed the back of his neck.
I was about to open my mouth and say something when Axel came screaming toward me with a dandelion in his hand.
“Mama look! Mama look!”